Dateline August 18, 2020, Raleigh, the Grandchildren, and a Rock Company
Lake Rodgers. Before John ever met up with Janice in Indiana, he had spent a weekend in Raleigh, and the highlight was a day at Lake Rodgers, just outside town. There were more kayaks, paddleboards, and tubes than there were people, and the children and grandchildren had a wonderful time swimming and floating about. Courtney, Amanda, and Kieran had brought a lot of their friends, with enough additional children to put the group over twenty, and between the drinks and a fine barbecue it was a grand day.
A rock company. James and Mary's two, Collin at seven and Liza at five, set about talking us into buying a rock-polishing machine. Our first question was why they wanted it. "We are going to sell the polished rocks in front of the house," came the reply. Well, that sounds like a business. How much was the machine? Eighty-six dollars. And how much of their own money were they prepared to put in? They had twenty-six dollars.
So it turned into a conversation about making a deal. We explained that we would make an investment, but it would have to be paid back out of their profits. Janice thought it better that Grams and Gramps own stock in the company and take our proportionate share of the profits, and of course the two of them thought that was a splendid idea, knowing it meant they would get the machine. We told them there would have to be an agreement they would sign, one that made their parents our representatives and required a report every few weeks on the doings of the Rock Company.
The last word we had was that the first small stones were nearly polished, and that with their mothers' help they meant to make jewelry of them and sell it on Etsy. We were impressed.
Future golfers? Maybe Liza's first lesson with Janice will get her started. At five she gave it a solid fifteen minutes of interest before it was time to do something else. Collin took to it and is looking forward to the driving range.
The museum. We had made plans to take Liza and Collin to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. With COVID, all the activities were outside on the museum's fine grounds. We enjoyed the train ride through the park and all the exhibits, and there was a water park where the children could block the flow of the water and splash to their hearts' content.
Golf at UNC Finley. Having so enjoyed the college campus courses in Indiana, we called the pro shop at Finley, the University of North Carolina's campus course in Chapel Hill. Golfweek ranks it nineteenth on its list, up from twenty-fifth the year before. The staff could not have been kinder, and we had a great round.
The original course was designed by George Cobb and built with the backing of the Raleigh businessman A.E. Finley, opening in 1949. Finley, one of the largest equipment dealers in the country, served the university and the town of Chapel Hill well for the better part of half a century, but in time the course was felt to need a thorough overhaul. The decision was made to bring in Tom Fazio, one of the modern game's foremost designers and a North Carolina resident, to start from scratch on the site. UNC Finley opened in its new form in 1999, the eleventh course Fazio had designed in his adopted home state, and one he would put up against anything else he had done there.
We had wonderful dinners with the whole family each evening. James was putting the final touches on an IT course he was writing and could not join us our last night, when Kieran took Courtney and the two of us out to dinner in Raleigh. It was a lovely evening, and we were so grateful for the time with them. Next stop, Pinehurst.
